source: trunk/README@ 536

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 ³            F(ile) M(anager)/2 is free software from Mark Kimes           ³
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 ³                READ.ME file -- read before installing                    ³
 ³        See end of document for contact info and license details          ³
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File Manager/2 (FM/2) is a free OS/2 3.0 (Warp)+ PM 32-bit
file/directory/archive maintenance utility (a sort of super-Drives
object, something midway between the Drives objects and a more
traditional file manager) with plenty of bells, whistles and utilities,
drag and drop, context menus, toolbars, bubble help and accelerator
keys.  If you know how to use OS/2, you already know how to use most of
FM/2.  You can easily glean the rest from the extensive online help,
including tutorials.

This document explains how to install FM/2, including upgrading from
previous versions.  It explains command line syntaxes (parameters in a
program object) and how to get the program(s) running.  The online help
tells you how to actually use FM/2.  I'll try to keep this brief.

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
    (at your option) any later version.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    GNU General Public License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
    Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA


FM/2 3.x installation instructions:
==================================

First-time installation:
-----------------------
   1. Unpack the FM2*.ZIP archive in a private directory (for example,
      C:\FM2).  UNZIP.EXE works nicely to unpack the file.

  2.  Run the provided INSTALL.CMD in that directory to build a folder
      and program objects.  INSTALL /? will give you simple command line
      help on a couple of options.

  3.  Run it -- double-click the "FM/2" or "FM/2 Lite" object in the
      File Manager/2 folder.  Play, browse, have fun.  Full help is
      available from within the program, and it helps you with quick
      initial setup the first time it's run.

Upgrading existing versions of FM/2:
-----------------------------------
      If upgrading, just unpack the files in the FM/2 directory.  Be
      sure to overwrite old files.  You might want to skip ARCHIVER.BB2
      if you've customized it -- other customizations are automatically
      preserved.  You might then want to rerun INSTALL or just delete
      *.TMP and *.ICO to clean up some stuff that you won't need when
      upgrading.  Note:  don't attempt to unpack using FM/2 into the
      directory in which FM/2 is already running -- OS/2 locks in-use
      files and the upgrade won't be completed properly; not all files
      will be unpacked.

Moving FM/2:
-----------
      Rerun INSTALL.CMD if you move the FM/2 directory.  This will make
      sure all the objects in the folders and *.CMD files point to the
      right place.  Compare to other products, where'd you'd have to
      reinstall if you could only figure out how to completely uninstall
      the existing version...

Uninstalling FM/2:
-----------------
      If you later decide to remove FM/2, run UNINSTAL.CMD in the FM/2
      directory and follow simple directions.  Both installation and
      deinstallation are no-brainers.  UNINSTAL will help you quickly
      and easily remove all traces of FM/2 from your system, if you
      don't like it for some reason.  All programs should be so nice.


First-time notes:
================

Starting FM/2 -- how it works, customizing parameters:
-----------------------------------------------------
If you start File Manager/2 (filename FM3.EXE) with no parameters, it
opens the Drive Tree window but no directory windows (unless the "Save
state of dir windows" toggle is checked -- see online help).

File Manager/2 optionally accepts names of directories in the parameters
field of its program object; it'll open a directory window for each one.
Hint:  If you often do different specific things with FM/2, you might
set up a WPS object customized to start up ideally for each activity.
For example, if you wanted to maintain your BBS areas, you might have
one object with parameters like: "D:\BBSDIR D:\BBSDIR\MAILIN
D:\BBSDIR\MAILOUT", and if you also like to use FM/2 to set icons on
files, you might have another object with parameters like:  "E:\MYICONS
D:\NEWFILES".  The State quicklist can also be used for this within FM/2
itself -- see online help.

You can exclude drives in the parameters by prefacing the drive letter
with "/", and there can be more than one drive letter behind the "/"
(i.e. "/BH" to exclude both drives B: and H:).  Hint:  Many people like
to use /B to exclude "phantom" drive B: if they have a single-floppy
system.  Similarly, you can cause drives NOT to be prescanned by the
Drive Tree by prefacing the drive letter with ";", drives NOT to load
icons for objects by prefacing the drive letter with ",", drives NOT to
load subjects for objects by prefacing the drive letter with "`" and
drives NOT to load longnames for objects by prefacing the drive letter
with "'".  This can be handy if you have a very slow drive like a CD-ROM
or Zip drive.  FM/2 Lite recognizes these switches, too.  See also the
Drive Flags dialog in FM/2.

If you place the plus sign "+" (alone, separated from anything else by
spaces) in the parameters, FM/2 will log, to FM2.LOG, delete, rename,
move and copy operations that are performed by drag-and-drop or with the
menus.  FM/2 Lite recognizes this switch, too.

The parameter "-" (alone, separated from anything else by spaces) causes
FM/2 to ignore, not load or save, the previous state of directory
windows (see the "Save state of dir windows" toggle under Config
Menu->Toggles in the online help) for that invocation.

You can specify the name of an alternate INI file with "-<inifilename>"
-- for example, "-C:\FM2\MYINI.INI".

You can also specify the INI file location with the environment variable 
FM2INI -- for example:  SET FM2INI=C:\FM2\MYINI.INI.

How to get started using FM/2:
-----------------------------
Please read the following sections in the online help when you start
FM/2 for the first time:  "How to use FM/2's Help," "Terminology" and
"General Help," then "Hints."  A peek at the labelled "Window Layouts"
pictures would probably be a good idea, too.  The rest you can browse as
you get time/feel the need; for instance, if you want to know what a
toggle does, read the help under Settings notebook for that page (each
Settings notebook page has its own Help button).

If you prefer hardcopy help, print this file, run FM/2, press Ctrl + F1,
click the "Print" button at the bottom of the help window that appears
and then print both the "Contents" and "All sections" (keep an eye on
the printer, after page 100 of "All sections" as the Help Manager will
begin printing its own help then -- you may want to abort printing at
that point).  Advanced and/or curious users may also want to print
FM3TOOLS.DAT and ARCHIVER.BB2.  Be sure you have plenty of paper and ink
handy -- the package is well documented.  You'll probably also want a
three-ring binder and hole punch to get it bound, as staples aren't
going through that puppy.  You can, of course, print only the sections
that are of particular interest to you.

You may want to either move ARCHIVER.BB2 (the data file containing
information about archiver programs and archive files) to a directory in
your PATH= statement or erase this one if you've customized an old one.
FM/2 can still find, use and maintain ARCHIVER.BB2 on the PATH; it
doesn't have to be in FM/2's directory (this allows it to be used by
other programs as well, like XGroup, XBBS/2, LA, AV, ZTreeBold, etc.).
Remember, FM/2 works best with OS/2, not DOS, archivers.

Additional documentation:
------------------------
  FM3.HLP:        FM/2's online help file.

Look in the FM/2 Docs subfolder of the File Manager/2 folder for easy
access to all documentation.


Bonus programs:
==============

You'll note the extra objects that the Install program creates in the
FM/2 Tools subfolder of the File Manager/2 folder.  FM/2 is modular, so
that you can get directly to some of its components without running the
entire ball of wax.  This may allow you to enhance the behavior of some
of your other applications in the WPS tradition.  You don't _have_ to
keep these around, of course -- FM/2 itself contains all their
functionality.

  Archive Viewer/2:   Intended for drag-and-drop operation (or WPS
                      association) with WPS objects or other
                      applications.  Drag an archive onto it, drop it,
                      get an archive listing box.  FM/2's installation
                      program sets up some associations between archive
                      files and this program by file extension (run
                      INSTALL with "NOASSOC" as an argument if you don't
                      want them).  AV/2 will try to display whatever
                      you give it as sensibly as it can.  Filename AV2.EXE.

  EA Viewer:          Drag a file system object onto it and it'll show
                      you the object's extended attributes.  Filename
                      EAS.EXE.

  INI Viewer:         Drag an .INI file onto it and it'll show you its
                      contents.  Filename INI.EXE.

  Bookshelf Viewer:   Shows all .INF files in a listbox and lets you
                      pick the one(s) you want to view.  If you give any
                      command line argument, the .HLP files on the HELP
                      path will be shown instead (the Helpfile Viewer
                      object calls VIEWINFS.EXE with "dummy" for an
                      argument, for example).  Filename VIEWINFS.EXE.

  Process Killer:     Lets you kill off renegade processes.  An English
                      version of PSTAT.EXE must be on your PATH.
                      Filename KILLPROC.EXE.

  Undeleter:          Lets you undelete files (via interface with
                      UNDELETE.COM).  Drag a file system object onto it
                      and it'll let you undelete files for that drive.
                      Filename UNDEL.EXE.

  Visual Tree:        Opens a Drive Tree window (like the WPS Drives
                      object with more horsepower).  Filename VTREE.EXE.

  Visual Directory:   Opens a Directory Container window; drag a file
                      system object onto it and this will open its
                      directory (like a WPS directory Folder with more
                      horsepower).  Filename VDIR.EXE.

  Collector:          Opens a Collector window.  Filename VCOLLECT.EXE.
                      Two other objects, "See all files" and "Seek and
                      scan" are created which call up the Collector and
                      go directly to dialogs for the appropriate
                      purpose.

  Global Viewer:      Opens a global view of a drive or drives.  Filename
                      GLOBAL.EXE.

  Databar:            Opens a databar showing some system information.
                      Filename DATABAR.EXE.

  DirSize:            Shows where drive usage is concentrated.  Filename
                      DIRSIZE.EXE.

  FM/2 Lite:          A simplified interface for "dummies."  Filename
                      FM4.EXE.

FM/2's install creates FM2.CMD, AV2.CMD, VDIR.CMD, VTREE.CMD,
VCOLLECT.CMD, UNDEL.CMD, KILLPROC.CMD, INI.CMD, EAS.CMD, DIRSIZE.CMD,
VIEWINFS.CMD and VIEWHELP.CMD files for you in a directory "utils" off
the install directory.  You should add this directory to your PATH=
statement in CONFIG.SYS (type HELP PATH at a command line for more
info).  If you prefer, FM/2's INSTALL builds a SETENV.CMD in the FM/2
directory which you can call to set the PATH for FM/2 in any given
session without modifying CONFIG.SYS.


Troubleshooting:
===============

If FM/2 won't run, the probable culprit is CONFIG.SYS.  Your LIBPATH
statement should contain a ".\" entry.  If yours doesn't, add it.  It's
standard for an OS/2 installation, but some buggy install programs knock
it out because they translate entries to their full pathname before
rewriting (so ".\" gets translated to whatever the current directory is
for the buggy install program).  What this ".\" entry does is allow a
program to find and use .DLL files in the program's current directory --
obviously something you want programs to be able to do, otherwise you'd
have to put every application's .DLLs into directories already on the
LIBPATH, or add the directories of all applications to the LIBPATH, a
rather huge pain in the, uh, neck.

If things in FM/2 are suddenly acting strange after an upgrade, first
make _sure_ you unpacked _all_ the files and overwrote the old ones,
then ran INSTALL.CMD to update your WPS objects.

If the "FM/2 Online Help" object in the "FM/2 Docs" subfolder won't work
properly, you've got a version of VIEW.EXE that won't directly display
help (.HLP) files.  Use SEEHELP.EXE from the FM/2 Utilities package to
get around this problem (or upgrade your version of OS/2).

Don't drag files over Netscape -- it will lock up if files (not WPS
objects; there's a subtle difference) are dragged over it.

If you get a popup dialog that needs to be reported to the maintainer, you 
can either take a screen shot or you can capture the information from STDERR 
with

  FM3 2>STDERR.LOG

This technique works for all the FM/2, FM/2 Lite and all the standalone 
applets.

If you are having trouble with Drag and Drop operations, try the + command 
line switch described above.  The content of FM2.LOG may be helpful.


Known problems/shortcomings:
===========================

 - FM/2 does not properly report sizes of some files with long name
   resident on Win95/NT drives.

 - File List Container fails to fill after drive change SYS0039 error.

 - Tree switching on Focus/Directory Change appears to be slower than 
   expected.

 - Access to LS120 and FAT32 drives slower than expected

 - Icon display in Directory Container does not always match WPS icons

 - Spurious WPS Objects Handles created during some operations


About FM/2:
==========

FM/2 was originally written by:

  Mark Kimes
  <hectorplasmic@worldnet.att.net>

He has kindly allowed me to take over maintenance and support of FM/2 and to 
release the program under the GNU GPL license.  I'm sure he would appreciate 
a Thank You note for his generosity.

Support:
=======

There is a Yahoo group devoted to fm/2 at:

  <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fm2user/>

You will find lots of friendly folks ready to help.

You can reach me directly at:

  Steven H. Levine
  steve53@earthlink.net

I also monitor the comp.os.os2.apps newsgroup and several others in the 
comp.os.os2.* hierarchy.

Thanks and enjoy.

$Id: README 398 2006-07-28 23:19:45Z root $